2023 Fisker Ocean Prototype First Drive: Finally a Success for Henrik?

F. Scott Fitzgerald once declared there were no second acts in American lives. Nobody told Henrik Fisker. The Danish-born, Los Angeles-based car designer turned entrepreneur is now on his third attempt at building cars with his family name on the hood. In his early favor, our drive of a prototype of the electric-powered 2023 Fisker Ocean SUV due to hit streets in 2023 suggests he might finally have a winner.

At first acquaintance, the all-new Ocean is a cool, classy, competent take on what is quickly becoming the planet's hottest vehicle segment: the midsize electric-powered SUV. More important, though, behind this new Fisker EV is a manufacturing infrastructure with a proven track record in building everything from sports cars to sedans to luxury off-roaders in high volumes and to high quality standards.

Every EV startup, even those that are well funded and staffed with talented executives, has discovered the reality that designing and engineering a groundbreaking new EV is, relatively speaking, the easy bit. Building them is a whole different ball game. "It's maybe 100 times harder to design the manufacturing system than the car itself," Tesla boss Elon Musk has acknowledged ruefully as Tesla struggles consistently to improve quality at its plants. And he's not alone. Both Rivian and Lucid have been grappling with problems that have slowed their production.

Fisker's secret sauce is Magna Steyr, an automotive manufacturer based in Graz, Austria. Magna who? You may not know much about this company, a subsidiary of Canadian auto supplier Magna International, but you're familiar with what it builds: the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, Jaguar I-Pace, BMW 5 Series sedan, BMW Z4, and Toyota Supra. Indeed, Magna is an experienced, flexible, and efficient auto manufacturing specialist. And it's invested in making the 2023 Fisker Ocean a success, literally: The company has taken a 6 percent stake in Fisker Inc.

Although Fisker stock has been on a wild ride since the company was floated—at the time of writing, it was trading at less than a third of its peak in February 2022—it's an investment that could pay big dividends for Magna. "I think today we are a $2.5 billion company," Fisker says, pointing out Rivian and Lucid, despite significant cuts to their production forecasts, are worth about $30 billion and $24 billion, respectively. "Magna might make more money on that stake than it actually makes on the cars it builds for us." That, of course, depends entirely on whether the Fisker Ocean is a success.

The Ocean is built on Fisker's own platform co-developed with Magna and codenamed FM29. The name comes from the wheelbase, which is 2,920 mm, or 115.0 inches. It's a conventional skateboard design with MacPherson struts up front and a multilink rear suspension, and room for an e-motor at each axle.

Fisker looked initially at basing the Ocean off Volkswagen's MEB electric vehicle platform, but the German automaker proved frustratingly slow to deal with, he says. There were other issues, too. "Quite frankly, we couldn't get the proportions we wanted with MEB," Fisker says. "With Magna we saw an opportunity to actually say, 'OK, we can really set the stage. I can make the wheelbase the way I want. I can do the track the way I want, the height, the front windscreen, all the proportions just right. '"

There was one other big advantage in doing a bespoke platform: "We own 100 percent of the intellectual property," Fisker says. It's a strategy that other corporate newcomers in the game, like Aehra, claim to also be attempting—the iPhone model of third-party production.

Base-model single-motor Oceans will be front-wheel drive. In the dual-motor versions, the rear motor will declutch under certain conditions to save energy. Magna builds the e-motors to Fisker's specification, and each develop a peak of 275 horsepower.

Fisker will offer two different chemistries from Chinese battery specialist CATL, one focused on price, the other on performance. The base battery is a lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) unit that will be available only in the front-drive Ocean Sport. Other Ocean models will get CATL's better-performing and more expensive nickel, manganese, and cobalt-oxide (NMC) battery, which boasts a capacity of more than 100 kWh and can charge from 10 to 80 percent in less than 35 minutes.

The Ocean's 400-volt electrical architecture will support vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid charging. Battery choice will be the fundamental differentiator between the different Ocean models in terms of their range and performance, and because batteries are expensive, that's reflected in the price.

The entry-level front-wheel-drive 275-hp single-motor Ocean Sport is expected to list from $39,000. For that you get the LFP Touring Range battery Fisker says will deliver an estimated EPA range of 250 miles. The least expensive of the dual-motor models, the $49,999 Ocean Ultra, boasts a total of 540 hp and is expected to deliver 340 miles of range on the NMC battery dubbed Hyper Range.

Revised software means the top-of-the-range $68,999 Ocean Extreme's Hyper Range battery will take it 10 miles further between charges than the Ocean Ultra, and it will get there quicker courtesy of its performance-focused 550-hp powertrain. Fisker claims a 0-60-mph acceleration time of about 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 130 mph. The Extreme also comes with solar roof panels that provide 1,500 to 2,000 miles' worth of range per year in ideal conditions.

The first 5,000 cars off the line will all be badged Ocean One. They are essentially Ocean Extreme trims fitted with one of the two optional 22-inch wheel designs and performance tires; all Oceans come standard with 20-inch wheels and bespoke range-focused tires developed by Bridgestone. They also get the MaliBlu dark blue interior at no extra cost. All will have a "digital signature" in the vehicle information menu to authenticate their place among the first 5,000 electric vehicles made by Fisker.

Bodywork teased out over a wide track, and big wheels right at the car's corners, make the Ocean look smaller than it really is. Measuring 188.0 inches long, 75.8 inches wide, and 64.2 inches tall, the Fisker is slightly longer, wider, and taller than a Ford Mustang Mach E, a Tesla Model Y, or our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year, the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Its 115.0-inch wheelbase is 1.2 inches longer than the Tesla's but 2.5 inches shorter than the Mustang's and 3.1 inches shorter than the Hyundai's. However, the rear seat will happily accommodate 6-foot-tall adults. There's no frunk for storage—it's stuffed full of e-motor and inverters and other electric-powertrain hardware—and the rear load space is adequate rather than capacious.

The interior vibe is minimalist, with even the audio system speakers hidden, though its cleanly rendered forms and sophisticated materials mean it's nowhere near as grimly drab as that of a Tesla. A small screen behind the steering wheel gives the driver all the key pieces of information needed while driving.

The main user interface is a giant 17.1-inch touchscreen at the center of the dash that, when the Ocean is parked, can rotate from portrait to landscape format to enable video viewing in all its widescreen glory. Intelligently, Fisker resisted the temptation to make the screen lord and master of everything the Ocean does: A row of buttons located in a fixed structure below the rotating screen controls the air conditioning settings. There are also buttons for the lights and e-brake, and a stalk for the windshield wiper controls.

We drove a pre-production prototype Ocean Extreme, which meant it had the 550-hp dual-motor powertrain, optional 22-inch Air Glider wheels, and 255/45 Bridgestone performance tires. Though well worn and rough around the edges—as all prototypes tend to be at this stage of development—and still awaiting software calibrations, it was nonetheless close to final spec in terms of the powertrain and suspension tune.

As you'd expect, with 550 hp and instant-on torque, the Ocean feels quick and lively off the line, speed building with the silent, elastic surge that makes EVs so addictive in traffic. The steel-sprung suspension keeps a tight rein on wayward body motions; roll, dive and squat are well controlled, but not at the expense of the rolling ride. Road and wind noise levels are low.

Unlike many other dual-motor EVs, the Ocean feels noticeably front-drive biased, understeering in tighter corners when you go to power, with some torque-steer evident under hard straight-line acceleration. A little more rear-motor bias, easily done with a software change or two, would dial up the fun factor for twisty bits of road. The braking also needs work: The pedal travel is too long, and there's too much delay before the accelerator responds after braking inputs.

Fisker also could take a little more weight out of the steering to enhance the decent feel from the front axle. And the steering wheel needs a redesign, as the multi-axis touchpanels on the spokes are too easily activated inadvertently by the palms of your hands.

Pleasingly, the Ocean drives smaller and lighter than expected; it doesn't feel like a lumbering SUV with a big battery in its belly. Intriguingly, when asked, Fisker engineers smilingly declined to say how much the Ocean weighs, which suggests their extensive use of aluminum and plastics—the front fenders and rear quarter panels are plastic, for example—has paid significant dividends.

At first acquaintance, the 2023 Fisker Ocean looks set to ruffle a few feathers in the midsize electric SUV segment. The $39,000 entry-level Ocean Sport undercuts even the base Hyundai Ioniq 5 by about $3,000, and if Fisker's estimates stand up to EPA testing, it will offer 13 percent more range in the bargain. Ford's cheapest Mustang Mach-E, the Select with the standard-range battery, boasts similar power and range numbers as the Ocean Sport but costs some $9,000 more.

At the lineup's top end, the Ocean Extreme costs nearly the same as a Tesla Model Y Performance (which is around $69,990 before factoring in any incentives) but offers similar actual performance and is expected to deliver more than 15 percent better range. But the Extreme is nearly $7,000 cheaper than the similarly quick Mach-E GT Performance Edition and should have 34 percent better range.

The real bang-for-your-buck Fisker looks to be the mid-spec, $50,500 Ocean Ultra. If Fisker's range numbers stand up to EPA testing, it should go 31 percent farther than a $57,795 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Limited AWD, 10 percent farther than a $64,190 Tesla Model Y Long Range, and 30 percent farther than a $71,195 Mach-E GT between charges. And with 540 hp on tap, it should accelerate quicker to 60 mph than either the Hyundai or the Tesla, and be right on par with the Mach-E GT.

Competitive pricing is only part of the story. From the fourth quarter of 2023 Fisker plans to offer a flexible lease that will allow customers to return their Ocean anytime. In fact, the company plans to eventually offer Oceans only via lease. "We're going to own the vehicle until the end of its life, 12 years, and recycle it," Fisker says. "You can lease and hand it back anytime you want."

Customers leasing older pre-used Oceans will be offered software-based functionality upgrades, for a fee, a strategy Fisker believes will unlock more value for the company over the vehicle's lifetime than is normally extracted via servicing and maintenance. "We'll make more than three times the profit margin over 12 years versus a one-time sale," he says.

Finally, Fisker says the company has 60,000 Ocean preorders, including 5,000 prepaid deposits of $5,250 for the limited-edition Ocean One, and early off-tool cars are already rolling off the Magna Steyr assembly line. In 2023, the first full year of production, he expects the company to deliver 40,000 to 50,000 total vehicles to the U.S., Europe, and Asia.